


A little Talk

by danvssomethingorother



Series: Good Enough [2]
Category: The Venture Bros
Genre: F/M, Father and son piece mainly, Hank just doesn't get his dad is pretty much married to his body guard, M/M, Multi, but they do talk about their relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-10 19:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15956267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danvssomethingorother/pseuds/danvssomethingorother
Summary: Set after ‘The High Cost Of Loathing’, Hank talks to his dad about relationship problems and finds out his dad may have more in common with him then he thinks.





	1. Chapter 1

Hank had stayed the night with his dad in the hospital, partially so he didn’t have to make the long trek back home and partially because Brock had been calling him every five minutes after he accidentally may have forgotten to tell him he rented his old room out. 

His dad had gotten him up with him with an accidental smack to the face as he stretched out on his hospital bed, not noticing his son snoring on the bed next to him like he had done when he was small.

“Hank?” his dad demanded groggily, “What in the world are you doing in bed with me?”

“Well if I just push you over far enough, there is room, you aren’t that big pop,” Hank grumbled back just as grumpily. 

“Well get your smart butt off me before you yank out an IV,” his father grunted out weakly shoving at his son who began grumbling back complaints but hopped off the bed when he heard the nurse coming in.

Hank watched slightly amused as his dad squirmed as the nurse poked and probed at him, he kept motioning his hand for Hank to go away, but he just stayed, telling the nurse loudly he was here to offer his daddy support. His dad gave him a nasty glare as he latched onto his hand, but Hank knew deep down he probably appreciated having someone to latch onto as the nurse took blood samples. His dad had his eyes squeezed shut tight, something about needles always put him on edge, he felt the tremors working their way through his body as he held his son’s hand tight while the nurse groaned and asked firmly for him to just hold still so she could get this over with. 

The nurse was ready to leave when she got done with a cranky Rusty Venture, complaining about everything she needed to do and telling him firmly he lost too much blood to be released right now. Hank gave his dad a smug smile as he slouched in the bed, folding his arms and pouting because he had to stay longer.

“I’m guessing you are sticking around?” his dad grumbled turning on the TV.

“Brock is mad at me,” Hank admitted sheepishly propping his feet on his dad’s bed and tipping his chair back after snatching the remote from his grumpy father.

“What about your little girlfriend?”

Hank sighed and shook his head, “She doesn’t have time for me right now.”

His dad just nodded grabbing his glasses off the night stand and giving his son the closest thing he had ever given him close to a sympathetic look.

“Yeah, I know the feeling.”

“Brock mad at you for jumping out a window?” Hank asked absently as he channel flipped.

“I’m pretty sure he’s happy I did so he doesn’t have to deal with me,” his dad admitted honestly, turning his head towards the open window not that interested in the reality show his son had put on. 

“I don’t think so,” Hank said earnestly crawling back in bed with his dad, shoving him aside enough so he could lie by him, “He seemed really upset you did that.”

“Its his job to,” his dad said with a sad smile as if he was just reiterating something someone else had told him in the past. 

They sat in silence a few minutes watching the woman on TV have a melt down about her boyfriend before his dad sighed and turned his head towards his son.

“Hank I am going to give you the best advice I will ever give anyone: don’t waste your time on someone who isn’t willing to invest their time solely onto you. If your girl is embarrassed to be seen with you but is just fine showing off the side piece of action, its probably not worth it.”

Hank thought about this advice for a minute staring past the TV to the curtained off area where he heard the low beeping of machines before finally replying to his dad who had drifted off again, jumping a little as Hank shifted on the bed.

“Sirena is a great girl, like the most amazing person I think I have ever met,” Hank began smiling fondly as he thought of her and his smile only widened when he saw his dad give him a small smile, “She’s funny, she’s strong, she’s smart and she’s beautiful!”

“And rich, you can’t leave that one off,” his dad teased lightly making Hank laugh and nudge him hard enough to make him groan in pain before nudging his son back weakly.

“She’s got it going on! Everything about her is perfection…” Hank’s smile dropped as he trailed off staring at the TV watching as the woman slapped another woman hard enough for both him and his dad to cringe at the impact.

“I feel there’s a ‘but’ coming,” his dad said looking away from the TV all together as the two women began beating each other and the boyfriend just stood by watching with an amused expression.

“I just feel like maybe I’m not the one for her and when she gets bored with me, she’ll just move on like she did the other heroes she dated…she’s already starting to turn me down at every turn. Who has classes at nine in the evening? That has to be an excuse, right?”

“Could be,” his dad shrugged, “Maybe not. Your brother has a few evening classes you know and hey maybe if you enroll in college, you can get the same classes as her and then you can get sick of seeing each other.”

“No way,” Hank said firmly, “I don’t need college. I don’t know why you are pushing it so hard when we are loaded. I could already be batman right now if you would let me.”

His dad picked up the IV button that controlled his morphine intake and attempted to click it before Hank playfully swatted it out of his grip not letting his dad just knock himself out when they were finally talking like normal family members.

“That money won’t last forever, mister,” his dad scoffed smacking him back as Hank once more smacked the button from his hand, “Don’t come crying to me when you have to go beg for hand outs from your brother.”

“I think I learned some pointers from you on that front,” Hank grumbled and hissed in pain as his father jabbed him harder then he expected him to in the ribs with his nubby elbow.

“For that smart retort I’m not even gonna humor you with your problems, I’m calling your body guard to pick you up this instant, mister.”

“No, pop, I’m sorry alright?” Hank yanked his father’s communication device from his as he held it out trying to make due on his threat, “I can’t go back home till Brock cools down.”

Hank pocketed his father’s communicator making him growl his way in annoyance but didn’t risk ripping out his IVs and dealing with the nurse again wrestling it back from him.

“What did you do?” his father said giving him that stern stare that threatened the gates of hell would be unleashed if he didn’t fess up. Hank gulped and turned away not wanting to ruin the mellow mood he had been having with his father.

“Henry Allen Venture,” he said firmly making Hank squirm a little.

“I don’t want you to hate me anymore then you already do,” Hank grumbled turning his head away staring intently at his father’s vitals noting his heart beat had gone up a little.

His dad sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t hate you Hank, it is impossible for me to hate you. I just don’t like the paths you are always trying to go down, trust me Hank, you do not want to go down them. Just relying on Daddy’s money and pulling every stupid scheme that comes to mind leads to drug addictions and massive failures that will haunt you the rest of your life.”

“Why are you always more lenient on Dean then? Why give him everything, your love, your attention, probably all your money and me nothing.”

“I am not gonna just give Dean my money when I die,” his dad sighed out, “With the way the company is going, it will all be gone before I hit the grave and we will be back to nothing very, very soon. That’s why I tried to push college on you, get it while we have money. Money goes very fast Hank, I blew your grandfather’s money before you were even born.”

“I don’t remember us exactly being poor,” Hank grumbled out staring his father down.

“Thank that to Brock, god send that man, much better at business then I will ever be. He was able to get me a few military commissions before I turned us into trailer trash.”

“And for your information, I don’t love your brother more, I just know he needs the extra push to get through it all. Super Science is the only career a Venture can have, do you think I wanted to be this either? No but I was too broke to try to break into anything else after I thought I could live in Europe since my own dad was too dead to tell me what to do anymore. And no Hank, I am not telling you that one. You can’t hear about that till you are over twenty-one, daddy did a lot of drugs.”

He stared thoughtfully at Hank a minute, gently brushing his hair out of his eyes, an action he hadn’t done for either of them since they were little. Hank sometimes suspected the whole clone thing was a reason their dad had become so distant towards them over the years. It hadn’t always been like this, he used to openly give them affection when they were small and acted like he loved them but then one day, he just stopped. One day they were his world and the next it almost felt like they were the cause of his pain.

“You take so much after me. You are stubborn. Life tries to fuck you over, but you just shove past it all and keep going. I try to push you away, to go make you make a name for yourself away from this hell of a life but you just keep banging on the door wanting back in this life. If you were smart, you would leave Hank. This life is hard, so hard and it never gets easier. Just more painful with each year, but you want to stay anyway. It will kill you one day.”

Hank had never seen this raw side of his father before, all the sarcasm and attitude stripped away only leaving the bare loneliness and pain life had left him with. He looked older then Hank had ever seen him. Maybe his addictions didn’t help but it was the life of a boy adventurer that had done this to him, made him into this. It made Hank afraid he would just end up like this too but that didn’t mean he was going to leave this life. It was his life, his father wasn’t perfect and was an asshole but he was his father and Hank was brave enough to wade through the storm till one day it would calm down. 

“This life did kill me,” Hank mumbled keeping his eye on his father’s vitals that were sky rocketing on that reveal, “But you brought me back anyway, so you must not really want me to leave.”

Hank almost expected his father to start sobbing but he just gave a sad little smile to Hank and shook his head.

“I guess I did.”

“Hey pop,” his dad looked up to him, their eyes locking for a brief second before they both looked away awkwardly, “Ya wanna…go somewhere better then this? Maybe get a drink?”

His dad laughed at the ridiculousness of that question and shook his head.

“You are eighteen, I am not going to go get drunk with my still underage son,” he scoffed turning his head away and hissing a little as he yanked his IVs out on his own, “But if your body guard is going to mad at you anyway for whatever you did, yes let’s leave.”

Hank was a little concerned as he watched his father bandage his own arm up himself with the supplies the nurse had left behind with ease and precision of a man who had to deal with his own injuries in the past.

“Go get daddy’s cloths,” he said easily pointing his head towards the dresser on the other side of the room Hatred had left a spare set in the day before, “Let’s go hide in a nice hotel, scare your body guard into thinking we got kidnapped while he went and did her instead of watching us.”

“Her?” Hank questioned as he watched his father force himself up, hissing and moaning the entire way into a sitting position as he grabbed his cloths.

“You know, his new woman, Warriana,” he hissed her name like it was something foul, something that could cause nothing but misery.

Hank wanted to argue that if Brock did see her last night he wouldn’t have gotten ten messages from the man telling him how much trouble he is in for making him nearly kill some tourists, but he also didn’t want to ruin the mood with his dad. He wanted to go on a whacky adventure with him, just the two of them, so he wasn’t going to spoil it like that. 

“I was kinda joking, pop,” Hank tried to argue seeing his father having trouble even sitting up, “Do you really think you are well enough to leave the hospital? The nurse---”

“Oh what does she know,” his father grunted yanking his pants on, biting hard into his lip as he yanked them over his injured thigh and buttoned them, “I have had worse. Let’s go give your body guard a scare, that will get you off his shit list.”

“If you say so Pop…”

“Oh, I know so, Hank,” he said firmly, “Trust me, he’s already pissed I jumped out a window, if I just disappear all the shit will be on me again. Come on, I’m doing you a favor here, you can remain the apple of Brock’s eye and let daddy get yelled at.”

Hank knew this was a bad idea, his dad was in bad health right now, he really didn’t need to leave the hospital, but he couldn’t contain his glowing smile as he stole a wheel chair from the hallway and helped hoist his dad into it.

There was going to be hell to pay later sure, but Hank wasn’t going to pass up a chance to spend time with his dad. Maybe an adventure was all it needed to get a few extra brownie points to be the favorite.


	2. Chapter 2

Rusty Venture was a cheap man by nature, it was a strange concept for Hank to understand since he knew his grandfather had lived very luxuriously and well he knew his father wasn’t one to live without his own expensive wants. He had a spoiled rich kid demeanor about him at times, but he always opted out on the expensive things. If it wasn’t broke, he kept malfunctioning appliances until they finally exploded, he wore the same outfits he had for like a million years, and he never took risks when there was a cheaper option out there.

That was just how he always had been as far back as Hank could remember.

Yet today, he didn’t seem to mind whatever price, he just wanted to be far away from the hospital. He even gave the Taxi driver a tip, something his pop would never do, he was so grateful to be out of there.

They were rooming in a five-star hotel that came close to being as nice as their penthouse, it had a fancy living area and closed off bedroom with an impressive King size bed that looked like it could be for a king.

Heck, Pop even let him get whatever he wanted off the room service menu. No small print clause he had promised, he just thought it was fair they do this together if only just this once. He made it clear this was a one-time deal, he was never going to shill this much money out again.

Hank had ordered everything on the menu and he noticed his father’s cringe and knew seconds later he had called and cancelled the items he knew Hank wasn’t going to eat because when the food got here it had a lot less food then Hank expected and a lot more booze. 

He sat happily gorging himself on the food watching the giant plasma screen keeping a side eye on his dad who was lounged across the couch, his injured leg propped up on pillows, his fingers running across it, clawing at the fabric the more frustrated he became with whoever he was talking to. 

He watched his own cell phone buzz across his lap and Brock’s angry face staring back at him before he disconnected the call. He wondered how dead he was seeing he had ignored fifty calls from the man. He just cleared his voice mail, fearing the worst. He had long since turned off both him and his dad’s communicators not wanting to chance accidentally answering those.

“No! I wish to press charges on whoever cashed that check! It was not me!”

Hank was a little worried seeing him breathe harder, maybe it was a bad idea for them to leave the hospital. His dad looked ready to explode and he was bound to hurt himself when he did.

“My son wouldn’t do that, he’s sitting right here, I’ll ask him,” he turned towards Hank and called loudly, “Henry Allen Venture, did you write a check for a million dollars??”

“No way, I was right here and I don’t have your check book,” Hank said confidently and genuinely smiled as his dad smiled briefly at him before turning his anger back to the poor son of a bitch on the other line. 

“What the hell do you mean Dean Venture signed the check?? Dean doesn’t have that kind of damn money and a million dollars sure as hell isn’t an emergency money!”

“He signed it to WHO?” he screeched jumping to his feet and Hank jumped up as well grabbing on tightly to his father and helping him lay back on the couch as he clenched his teeth in pain. Hank hissed as well seeing the blood seeping through his pant leg, Pop had pulled his stitches. 

Hank took the phone from his father after that and made the bold decision to hang up on the poor banker just doing his job.

“Is Dean in trouble?”

“I would march down to that damn college and ground him myself if my damn leg didn’t choose now to act up.”

“Do we need to go back to the hospital?” Hank asked heart racing and panic rising but his dad just shook his head taking deep breaths.

“I stole a first aid kit from the hospital, go get it for me, I threw it over there somewhere,” his dad said simply, “And breath Hank. Its just a little blood, its fine.”

Hank only hesitated a minute just staring at the blood stain on his dad’s pants, but his dad grabbed his shoulders gently and commanded him to breath and soon he found himself doing so.

“Over by the wheel chair,” he said slowly, “I threw it over there somewhere when you helped me over here. Take a deep breath, go get it and hand it to me. I have got it from there, Hank.”

Hank nodded before running over and grabbing the first aid kit he was just remembering his dad making him grab from one of the rooms before they ran out of the hospital. 

He handed the box to his dad who grunted a thank you as he gently pulled his pants down, hissing the entire way before depositing them on the floor leaving him in only his underwear and turtle neck. Hank took a quick glance at the wound and saw the blood flowing and the stitches ripped after his dad had yanked the soiled bandages off and thrown them by his pants on the floor.

“Do you need help?” Hank mumbled watching his dad grumbling to himself as he pulled the needle and thread out, making a bigger mess in front of him as he just threw the sealed bag the needle had been in on the floor as well.

“I haven’t done this in awhile so I might be a little…”

“Rusty?” Hank supplied making his father roll his eyes, but a ghost of a smile did touch his lips at the awful joke.

“But you never quite forget how to patch yourself up.”

Hank found he couldn’t take his eyes away as he watched his dad patch the wound back up and then wrap it in clean bandages. He wondered how many times in his life he had to do this. When he lived with action man, he remembered him giving him small glimpses of the horror story his dad had grew up in when he was drunk and full of regret for how things went but just watching how easily his dad did this task did it dawn on him how bad it must have been to have to learn to do this to yourself. Live with the knowledge you were sometimes alone and only you could pick yourself up.

Hank didn’t even remember encountering one of his dad’s arches till he was thirteen, he couldn’t imagine what it was like to be shot at when you were tiny and fragile.

“Did Grandpa teach you how to do that?”

“No,” his dad answered firmly, “I learned it from the scout guide dad had chucked at me when I was six.”

“Read up Rust, you never quite know when you may need these basic skills! Daddy can’t always be there to fix you up after you get captured!” his dad sneered in a bad impression of his grandfather.

He chuckled at his own weird sense of humor, but the happiness didn’t meet his eyes. He just looked sad, like that fragile smile was the only thing holding back the flood gates.

“Your grandfather wasn’t a great guy Hank,” his dad finally admitted stretching out on the couch and turning his attention to the TV, “He was as shitty of a person as he was a father.”

“I don’t know, he might have been able to change,” Hank tried to argue, he wanted to believe in second chances. He wanted to keep believing him and his dad could be a happy family one day.

“Maybe,” his father said hollowly, “Maybe I just never knew the right side of him. Guess we will never know.”

“What did Dean do?” Hank opted to change the subject before he could upset his dad again and maybe a little because he was ready for his dad to tear into his brother a little.

He watched his dad pop open the wine bottle again that had previously been abandoned on the coffee table and he began taking a large swig from it.

“Your brother gave the monarch, ya know that guy who has been stalking this family for like twenty years, a million dollars last night.”

Hank had to hold his breath to keep from bursting into laughter.

“Does that mean---”

“I will throw this bottle at you if you ask to give your favorite masked weirdo a donation.”

“I wasn’t!” 

“That money was for emergencies and essentials only! The god damn monarch doesn’t sound like text books or groceries or I don’t know an emergency kidney transfer to me!”

“Maybe he was giving the monarch kidney money,” Hank giggled and his smile only widened at his dad’s sour expression.

“He has a body guard! A body guard who was twenty minutes away! He should have called him to rip out the monarch’s kidney!”

“Maybe Brock was… um busy… last night,” Hank said sheepishly looking away, he felt a little guilty right now. What if Dean had tried to call Brock but Brock was too busy possibly murdering the tourists he set up in his room?

“Warriana isn’t more important then this family,” his dad hissed back, “And if he thinks she is, maybe he should go be her body guard! He seems to love her more anyway…”

He began chugging down the wine again, Hank would be impressed by how much of one bottle his dad could get down in such a short period of time if he wasn’t so concerned. 

“Dean could have been hurt last night! If he had to resort to giving Monarch money to leave him alone, it was probably a serious situation! All those talks about his job year after year, but she is coming first before that too.”

His dad looked ready to break down and the alcohol couldn’t have been helping so Hank sat on the coffee table in front of him, not caring he was shoving a few plates of food onto the floor as he did so and gently took the bottle and was surprised his dad didn’t fight him.

“I don’t think Dean was in that much danger last night, it was the monarch, pop,” Hank said gently resting his hand on his father’s shoulder, “Are you upset Brock spends time with his new girlfriend?”

“I want to be more then just his job or the person he hides,” his father whispered tears threatening to fall, “Is that too much to ask? After 20 years…I gave him all of me, but I am just not enough for him…”

Hank didn’t hesitate, he pulled his dad close to his chest, hoping he would cry out this bad mood he was in but that didn’t seem to happen. He stayed stiff in Hank’s arms, but didn’t pull away.

“Are you and Brock…um….dating?”

“Its just a job,” his father said curtly pulling away from his son and taking a deep breath as he stared off into nothing.

“Ya know pop, someone gave me really good advice recently,” Hank said after a moment’s thought.

“Oh yeah?” his dad asked quirking his eyebrow at his son, a smug grin masking the pain on his face.

“Yeah. Don’t waste your time on someone not willing to invest time in you.”

His dad just began to chuckle, “When did you of all people get so smart?”

“I don’t know, probably uncle JJ.”

Hank could only laugh at his father’s sour look and the weak nudge in the ribs he got. 

“Does this like make you and Brock gay?”

“When I was your age I got one piece of advice that wasn’t nonsense from my dad’s idiot friends and I suppose your old enough now for me to give it to you,” his dad said with a shrug and looking him straight in the eyes with a very serious look and he gave Hank his worst Scottish accent making him smile.

“Its not gay to want to fuck beautiful people Rusty, you see a beautiful man? That’s not gay when you fuck him, that’s smart. You would have to be a fucking idiot to pass up a chance with a beautiful man.”

“Did Uncle Gentleman really tell you that?” Hank snickered.

“Oh yeah, like five different times when I walked in a random area of my house and found him fucking some twnk he picked up from god knows where.”

“Ok so if that’s what you see in Brock what does he see in you?”

If looks could kill, that glare would have double murdered Hank. A swift kill on first glance and a painful kill after his dad got done cloning him just to kill him again. 

“No, not like that!” Hank grumbled testily turning his head from that glare, “I mean if you really want to fully be with him, you have to know why you are together to begin with.”

“I’m not comfortable telling that story to my son,” was his father’s reply that made Hank’s eyes nearly pop out of his head. That was the start of a sex story if he ever heard it, he needed bleach for his brain just imagining his two father figures going at it like that. 

“No! Besides gross sex stuff!”

“I like the way he keeps me together, I think I would have just cracked by now if he wasn’t here,” his father admitted snaking his arm around Hank and taking the wine bottle back and taking another deep drink, “Sometimes I think he’s really here to protect me from me. Those bozos in costumes don’t have the balls to just finish the job, I am an easy target, but they just want to toy with me. The only real danger to me is….well you’re looking at it.”

“Ok so you love him for emotional support.”

“And the gross sex stuff,” his father added with a wink making Hank squirm and his father laugh.

“Ew! No Pop this is damn serious! I am gonna get you two married before this year is over! I mean I want sure want Brock to be a Venture and you probably want the same.”

“Yeah good luck with that,” his dad said with a smile and shake of his head, “You have a way better chance of getting married to your little girlfriend by the end of the year then getting Brock to even say he might in some way love another man.”

He sneered looking at the TV seeing an impressively buff woman talking, “And not to mention her. He will leave me again by the end of the year for that, I can’t compete.” 

Hank turned towards the TV and turned up the volume a little to hear what the woman was talking about. It was boring and rambling to Hank and he couldn’t pay attention to the words but the way she spoke them was hypnotic. Hank could see why Brock liked her, she was strong and powerful as he was it seemed and not to mention beautiful.

His father, however, seemed to have nothing but contempt for the woman. She was a threat to him and whatever he had with his body guard.

“Why not just ask Brock to stop seeing this woman? Brock is a---”

“I have expressed my concerns in the past, but he just did what he always does. Dismissed it, had his fun and then just left.”

“Please tell me ‘had his fun’ was something actually fun and not gross sex stuff…”

“Gross sex stuff is like a huge chunk of any relationship he has ever been in, where have you been?”

Hank had his hands firmly over his ears at this point making a disgusted expression, loudly telling his father to stop telling him about the sex stuff.

“Oh knock it off,” his father hissed at him swatting at his hand, “I’m not even giving you details! If I did you would really have a reason to cry, me and your body guard get into some weird shit.”

“Sttttopppp,” Hank moaned swatting at his father’s smug grin.

“Such a prude, you know when I was your age, I had Uncle Gentleman actually giving me all the lude details of his explorations as he called them. I just had to sit there and awkwardly listen or he would hit me with that cane of his because he was usually drunk and I was the only one who would listen, he said. Then he could cry and cling to me and I would just have to sit there awkwardly hoping he got up, knowing he had done this same shit to another twink across town earlier that day.” 

Hank awkwardly watched his dad pop open a bottle of tequila and just begin drinking that whole. 

“The liquor can not be good for your blood loss…”

“It helps,” his dad dismissed. 

The physical pain? His emotional pain? His mental illness he just let fester inside him instead of getting help for? Hank didn’t know what it helped. He just knew it wasn’t good for him, so he stole the tequila from him and proceeded to move all the liquor out of his dad’s reach, deciding it was definitely a bad idea they had got it at all.

His dad sighed loudly as he returned but didn’t lash out in anger like he thought he would. He rested his hand on his cheek and gently rubbed away the tears that were forming seeing his dad like this. He felt guilty for taking him out of the hospital at all for his own selfish reasons, his dad wasn’t well and needed help.

“You don’t deserve this life, Hank,” he mumbled gently running his finger under his thumb under his eye as something just broke in him seeing his dad like this and he began to openly cry, “But I was so selfish…I just brought you into this life anyway and it has done nothing but hurt you and Dean…”

“I’m sorry Hank.” 

Hank broke after that, sobbing hard into his father’s chest and his dad just held him like that, telling him it wasn’t going to get better, but it would get easier. Hank didn’t want it to get easier for either of them, he wanted things to get better. He just didn’t know how that would happen.

\---

They were woken later that afternoon by pounding on the door. Hank jolted up as he heard Brock yelling for them on the other side of the door, but his dad didn’t seem bothered and just glanced at the door and rolled over on the couch.

“Just let him break the door down, it will wear him out,” his dad grumbled beginning to doze off again.

“He sounds really mad Pop….” Hank mumbled already shaking and regretting his life choices.

“Don’t be a baby Hank,” his father grumbled out not even raising his head again pulling one of the pillows over his ear to drown out their body guard’s pounding, “Its his job to keep us alive. If he yanks off any limbs, Daddy will get you a cool robot limb.”

“Pop!” Hank whined.

“Hank!” his father whined back. 

“Oh crap he’s yelling at us, he’s gonna be madder if he has to break the door down!”

“Well let him, it will get him to shut up,” his father grumbled back, “And breath Hank, trust me, he is madder at me right now then mad at whatever you did.”

Hank hesitantly walked across the room and asked sheepishly who it was just loud enough for his father and Brock to hear.

“Just open the door, Hank,” Brock growled from the other side and Hank took another hesitant glance to his dad still on the couch, having not moved since Hank got up.

“Just let him in Hank, I have a few choice words to say to him too,” his dad hissed rising from his spot on the couch.

Hank took a deep breath before unlocking the door and letting his body guard in. Brock gave him a glare as he walked in that promised he was in for it too for his little stunt, but he marched right over to his father. Hank was a little worried he was gonna hurt his dad, he had never seen Brock this mad unless he was about to murder someone.

“What the fuck is wrong with you! You are a god damn idiot!” Brock snarled at his father leaning over the couch meeting his dad’s unimpressed expression.

“I’m surprised you even noticed I was gone,” his father said sending a glare Brock’s way that made chills run down Hank’s spine.

“Of course, I god damn noticed you just left the hospital, ass,” Brock growled clenching his fists looking like he wanted to hit his dad, “I have been calling all day and you refused to answer! Not to mention your son---”

“I don’t care what Hank did,” his dad snarled looking like he wanted to hit Brock as much as he wanted to hit him, “Forget us not answering for you, why the hell didn’t you answer Dean’s call? I know he must have called you last night when the Monarch terrorized him!”

Hank nearly jumped when he saw Brock began laughing and sat on the couch next to his dad.

“We both fuck up last night then?”

“Same as always,” his dad said with a shrug, “Hank can’t be in trouble with you now since Dean gave our family nemesis a million dollars.”

“I told you, don’t give a college student a company check book,” Brock grumbled lighting up a cigarette.

“And I told you he might need it for emergencies, he has a lot of important classes, you never know when you might need extra supplies,” his dad hissed out, “Get out of here, I am still mad at you. You just abandoned me alone in a hospital and you still didn’t have time to go rip out Monarch’s kidney.”

“I wasn’t doing what you think I was doing and your jealousy is getting damn old,” Brock hissed back at him, “We are leaving now. This isn’t up for discussion. You are going back to the hospital and Hank is grounded and I don’t know if you’re good, we’ll swing by the college and I’ll personally take the check book away from Dean.”

“Hank is not grounded and I’m fine,” his dad said waving his hand dismissively towards his body guard who was glaring at him now, “Go to the college and personally program your number on speed dial and remind Dean you are a call away.”

“No,” Brock said firmly, “This isn’t your call. You are labeled as a danger to yourself right now because of your little stunt. Hank is coming home with me and he is going to clean up the damn mess he made. There is no discussion about this, Doc. Your game is over. If you are lucky your doctor will release you tomorrow morning then you can go home and do stupid shit with Hank.”

“No,” Hank said nervously at first, but his voice became stronger and firmer when he saw the smile his dad was giving him, “You can’t boss my dad around. Don’t you like work for him or something?”

“Hank,” Brock said in an annoyed tone, “I don’t work for your father. I was hired by the government to make sure your dad stays alive and he’s a danger to himself. Again.”

“Dad isn’t just a job to you!” Hank all but blurted out not able to be coy about his new knowledge, his dad turned away when Brock sent a glare his way, “He loves you and you love him! And you haven’t been treating him right if you want to just lead him on with this news lady and go do her instead of staying in the hospital with my dad when he needed you!”

“What the hell have you been telling Hank?” Brock said very flatly turning an accusing look his dad’s way.

“He told me he loves you and he doesn’t really like you seeing the boring news lady and neither do I!” 

“So you left the hospital, got drunk and told Hank we fuck sometimes?” Brock groaned out, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“He was having problems with his little girlfriend not respecting him and well I can’t say I don’t relate…” his dad grumbled back. 

“You don’t just do gross sex things sometimes!” Hank practically yelled out swinging his finger towards Brock and glaring, “You guys love and take care of each other! You have been doin’ that since…well forever! Quite frankly, you need to pop the question and become a real member of this family!”

“We’ll talk about this shit later, we’re just going home,” Brock grumbled out before turning a deadly look Hank’s way, “And you be quiet. Someone might get the wrong idea if they hear you yelling about how you want me and your dad to get married.” 

“We aren’t going anywhere!” Hank continued just making his father figures stare at him, “Pop payed for three nights and well I don’t think you two should waste that money. I think a little alone time is what you need to sort out your issues!”

“You want me to fuck your dad?” Brock nearly choked on his own laugh, but his dad was already giggling at what Hank was really telling them.

“No!” Hank moaned turning his head away in disgust, “I mean you should actually talk to each other!”

“What are you planning on staying here too?” his dad asked, clearly amused at this display.

“Ew! Ew! No! I am going home and you are going to work out your problems!”

Hank marched out, leaving his very confused father figures behind him and heard Brock demand to know what the hell was going on before he slammed the door shut behind him.

He figured they would be home in a few hours, but they would at least talk to each other, then at least Dad could work out his relationship.

\--- 

A few days later, Hank was surprised to hear his dad actually knocking on his bedroom door to see him.

He didn’t really think Brock and his dad were an official couple yet, but Brock also didn’t appear to be seeing Warriana anymore either (that Hank knew of) and his dad had been in a better mood lately, so he could only hope it would get better from here.

“Hey pop,” he said just watching as his dad nervously entered the room and shut the door behind him.

“Am I in trouble?” he asked just as nervously as his dad looked, he had been waiting for the shoe to drop honestly, he knew Brock had to tell him about the tourists but he hadn’t heard anything about it yet from his dad.

“No Hank,” his dad said smiling at him and sitting on the bed, patting it gently inviting Hank to sit next to him.

“I wanted to thank you for sticking up for me against Brock, I know you idolize the man so it must have been hard for you to say that stuff to him.”

“What he did was messed up,” Hank said with a shrug, “I don’t care how much I love Brock, its not cool to string my dad along.”

“I didn’t want to appear unappreciative, so I thought I would do something for you,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope and handed it to Hank who stared at it confused. He was more confused when he pulled out two tickets for the Foo Fighters, he wasn’t the biggest fan of the band and he knew his dad wasn’t.

“Those are for Sirena,” his dad said with a shrug, “Me and Pete looked up her face book and found its her favorite band. She’s really into that Dave Grohl guy.”

“That’s nice pop but I don’t think she---”

“I already have that covered too,” his dad said gently patting his shoulder, “After taking away the company check book from your brother, he told me he had several classes with her and Pete found the rest of her schedule from the school website. We made sure she would be clear for this date and school wouldn’t be in the way.”

Hank felt like crying and couldn’t hold back the tears as he tackled his father into a hug.

“You make it really impossible to hate you, Pop, you are the best.”

“You are pretty impossible to hate yourself, Hank,” his dad replied gently running his fingers through his hair and giving him a gentle kiss on the forehead.


End file.
